great weekend #2

i'm sitting on the couch, watching the sun set over dallas through my ridiculously large and lovely windows in my ridiculously nice apartment...not bad.
this weekend was a lot of fun, coupled with a bit of fact-finding (?) about the dallas bike scene.
after flailing around on the bike routes near my apartment (wtf, dallas?), i made my way to the richardson bike mart on saturday morning. darden buddy brice wu was staying with me for a few days, so he slept in while i rode. after a frantic t.t. trying to find the bike shop (thank god the dallas metroplex is a giant grid), i arrived to a drill sargeant sending the rides off one by one. it was the most organized group ride gathering i'd ever seen. each ride that left got a "departed" sign hung next to it on the giant sandwich board outside the shop. i ended up on the "brisk" ride. it was pretty fun; especially when the hammerheads threw down the gauntlet near the end and looked back to see a selection of 7 including some girl in a kittykat kit. hee hee.
i fought the south wind on the way home and arrived at the apartment, mumbling something to brice about needing a shower. i think i was a little bonked. i only ate a bar. i keep forgetting how to feed myself on long rides since i don't do many.
brice took me to lunch at la madeline and i had a famous caesar. yummy!
i collapsed on the couch when i got back, and brice hit the road for california. i told him to call if he got bored and he said he'd be bored when he left the parking garage.
i am sooo exciting.
this morning i decided to try another bike shop ride. after a lovely jaunt to the bike shop on quiet city streets, i met up with the ride. in contrast to the previous day's ride, there were strange dynamics and the all-too-prevalent random dude who rides 20 feet off the front the whole ride.
hey asshole: if you wanted to ride by yourself, why didn't you just do that?
i find that so irritating. this is one of the 4957 reasons i am not fond of group rides.
apparently the "fast guy" ride left at 7:30 (who gets up that early on sunday?), so this ride was the moderate pace. there were beginning riders on it, but thankfully none of them were too sketchy. i rode near the front and chatted with the ride leader, jennifer (hope i got that right). she was really nice and tried to look out for the newer folks at the back.
of course, the inevitable manhood-measuring trumped her efforts to keep the ride together and the few overgrown children masquerading as unshaven-legged dudes on cervelos decided it was the world championships. i joined the fun for a while, being an annoying wheel-sucker just to prove i could. but i lost my nerve when the group blew through a no-way-in-hell-we-had-the-right-of-way t-stop. i slowed up to avoid dying and then the wall of wind hit me. suddenly i was no longer within sight of the testosterone-ridden pack (with jenny in their midst doubtlessly trying to control their urges) and resigned myself to finding someone who knew where the hell we were.
i arrived at my apartment after 4 hours on the road and remembered i hadn't eaten anything.
duh.
conclusion: i need to find a select group to ride with so i don't end up hating riding again. i'm thinking some guys with jobs who don't take it as life and death and are secure in their manhood. we'll see if i can dig any of those guys up in my travels. i'm sure i'll find them: every time i stop at a junction and pull out my bike map, some good samaritan finds me and gives me an attempt at helpful directions. they are so kind to do so. i noticed this a lot in nyc, as well. only it's when standing on a street corner for more than 2 seconds. i guess i look both lost and foreign.
on another note, i watched the belmont stakes. that was pretty cool. it brought back memories of the last time the triple crown was on the line (smarty jones) and i was in philly on the eve of my first uci bike race. exciting stuff.
having grown up on a horse, i really understand how the feelings of horse and rider are transmitted through the reins. i am not surprised at all at big brown's jockey's intuition to pull him up.
yet, every year that goes by i'm more conflicted about the ethics of the sport itself.
enough seriousnenss. here is a riddle:
a woman goes to her mother's funeral. at the funeral, she meets a man. they share a wonderful evening together and he leaves the next day. she does not know his name or how to find him. the next day she kills her sister.
why?
answer coming soon...